PHYSICAL REVIEW E 82, 021405 共2010兲
Drying of a colloidal suspension in confined geometry
Jacques Leng*
Laboratory of the Future, Université Bordeaux-1, 178 Avenue du Docteur Schweitzer, 33608 Pessac Cedex, France
共Received 6 May 2010; revised manuscript received 20 July 2010; published 23 August 2010兲
We describe experiments on drying of a hard-sphere colloidal suspension in confined geometry where a drop
of the suspension is squeezed in between two circular transparent plates and allowed to dry. In this situation,
the geometry controls the vapor removal rate and leads to a facilitated observation directly inside the drop. We
monitor the drying kinetics of colloids of two sizes and several volume fractions; in most cases, the drying
kinetics leads to the formation of a crust at the level of the meniscus which can be either crystalline or glassy,
the transition between the two cases being triggered by the local deposition velocity, itself slaved to the
evaporation rate. It yields a final dry state which is either polycrystalline or amorphous. The crust is also
responsible for a shape instability of the quasi-two-dimensional drop shrinking upon evaporation but with a
crust opposing mechanical and flow resistance, and possibly a partial adhesion on the substrate.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevE.82.021405
PACS number共s兲: 82.70.Dd, 47.57.ef, 81.16.Dn
I. INTRODUCTION
Drying is a fascinating and ubiquitous phenomenon: it
selects natural geometries and morphologies, has an important role in the technology of coating processes, and is an
obvious and major step in the industrial production of a large
gamut of end products, from foodstuff to civil engineering
materials.
While the conditions in which drying occurs may vary
drastically depending on the process, the basic case of the
sessile droplet of a solution evaporating in air at room temperature has attracted a tremendous academic interest, and
delivered valuable information. It represents a simple experimental situation which catches the complexity of drying: surface tension, line pinning, and vapor removal are coupled to
induce a capillary flow which controls the deposit during
drying 关1–3兴, whereas Marangoni effects also play a crucial
role 关4–7兴. Even if a theory that fully describes these systems
remains challenge and complex 关8–13兴, these evaporationinduced flows have opened up creative routes to shape-up
new and original nano- and micromaterials 关14–17兴.
Recent experimental breakthroughs were obtained on
model systems or via sophisticated observation. Twodimensional surface drying 关18,19兴 for instance includes
theory, simulation, and experiments and permits to understand thoroughly the interplay between thermodynamics and
kinetics in the final state. Yet, bulk drying is clearly more
difficult to investigate essentially because of observation
limitations and much has been inferred on the basis of global
observations 关20–22兴. The recent development of noninvasive, fast, and local measurements, such as confocal spectroscopy and microscopy, will permit to image optically or
chemically the bulk of a sample 关23–28兴. This, together with
the use of controllable soft matter systems, might help revisit
and unveil the physics at work in bulk drying, and especially
to appreciate how rheology, kinetics, and thermodynamics
are also coupled to the capillary flows.
*Previous Address: School of Physics and Astronomy, the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, United Kingdom;
[email protected]
1539-3755/2010/82共2兲/021405共8兲
In this work, we present a simplified version of the drying
experiment which permits to bypass some of the experimental difficulties of bulk drying. It consists in confining a drop
of a solution in between two plates as described in Fig. 1,
and has two strong consequences on the drying process: first,
the kinetics is imparted by the geometry as boundary conditions for evaporation are not left at infinity but instead are set
by the geometrical extent of the plates 关29兴; then observation
is made easy due to the thin, quasi-two-dimensional 共2D兲
geometry. This contrasts with the case of a sessile droplet
which is intrinsically a three-dimensional 共3D兲 problem.
Based on the experimental observation and qualitative arguments, we demonstrate that such a 2D geometry is quite
fruitful to revisit most of the well-known results concerning
the drying, here of a model hard-sphere 共HS兲 colloid suspension: evaporation induces the buildup of a dense state, a
crust, at the edge of the drop which inhibits the volume decrease and induces a buckling instability of the drop 共like the
invagination of a solid shell 关20,21兴兲. The crust, which can
be ordered or amorphous, grows quickly and totally invades
the drying drop; eventually, it dries up completely and frach
colloidal solution
glass substrate As
air
A(t)
Ai
image grabbed from CCD
contour detection
FIG. 1. Schematic view of the confined drying geometry where
a droplet of a colloidal solution 共⬇␮L兲 is squeezed in between two
circular glass plates 共diameter ⬇8 cm兲 and let to dry up. A camera
captures the image 共here of size 4 mm兲 and is further processed for
contour detection.
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©2010 The American Physical Society
PHYSICAL REVIEW E 82, 021405 共2010兲
JACQUES LENG
tures. We eventually demonstrate with simple arguments that
the drying kinetics can be entirely understood at least qualitatively on the basis of the confinement and local dynamics
of the colloids, and that the present experiment indeed delivers an extra optical observation of the kinetics seen from
inside the drop which is not directly accessible in 3D drying
experiments.
easily by changing the size As of the substrate.
Here, we used a glass substrate with a radius Rs = 4 cm
and a thickness 1 mm, and no surface treatment but thorough
cleansing with detergent. Three linear spacers of plastic shim
共thickness h = 50 ␮m兲 were used in all experiments and ensure a quasi-2D cylindrical geometry. We obtain experimentally that D̃ = 共4.2⫾ 0.03兲10−11 m2 s−1 at T = 23 ° C for pure
decalin 关29兴.
II. MATERIAL AND METHODS
C. Observation and analysis
A. Colloidal suspension
The colloidal solution we used was synthesized and
kindly provided by Dr. Andrew B. Schofield 共http://
www.ph.ed.ac.uk/~abs/兲. It consists of poly-共methyl methacrylate兲 共PMMA兲 spheres coated with a thin 共⬇10 nm兲
poly-共12-hydroxystearic acid兲 layer and dispersed in cisdecalin, a model system for HS colloids 关30,31兴. We used
two sets of solutions differing by the radius of particles,
namely R p = 共230⫾ 10兲 nm and 共3 ⫾ 0.1兲 ␮m hereafter
termed small and large colloids respectively. For the small
specie, the volume fraction may vary between ␾i = 0.2 and
⬇0.6, while for the large one the maximum volume fraction
is about 0.3.
The solvent, cis-decalin, has a very small vapor pressure
which sets a slow evaporation kinetics 共p쐓 ⬇ 120 Pa at
20 ° C 关29兴; compare to water pw쐓 ⬇ 2.4 kPa兲. Besides, there
is hopefully no decalin vapor in air which permits to disregard the issues related to the relative “humidity.” At room
temperature, the density of this liquid is ␳ ⬇ 900 kg m−3, its
viscosity ␩ ⬇ 3 10−3 Pa s, its surface tension with air is ␥
⬇ 31 10−3 N m−1 关32兴 which varies with temperature like
⳵T␥ ⬇ −0.1 10−3 N共m K兲−1 共see http://www.surface-tension
.de/兲.
B. Confined drying
When a drop of a pure solvent is squeezed in between two
plates, just like in Fig. 1, we may assume that evaporation
proceeds by diffusion of the gas from the meniscus of the
drop, where the atmosphere is assumed to be saturated in
vapor, toward the edge of the cell where the atmosphere is
dry. If the height of the cell is small as compared to its lateral
extent, the geometry is quasi-2D and the rate at which a drop
shrinks is calculated by flux conservation at the level of the
meniscus and near-equilibrium assumption: the vapor that
diffuses away from the interface just contributes to diminish
the volume of the drop 关29兴. It follows that for a pure liquid,
ln ␣
d␣ 1
= ,
dt ␶e
共1兲
in which ␣共t兲 = A共t兲 / As is the area of the droplet A共t兲 normalized by the area of the substrate As, and ␶e = As / 4␲D̃ the
evaporation time; D̃ represents the diffusion coefficient of
the gas modified to account for density balance between the
liquid and the gas. This result shows that confining the
evaporation casts a specific kinetics to the evaporation process, which is due to the finite size of the substrate from
which the gas must escape, and can therefore be tuned fairly
We use both local and global optical monitoring, although
not simultaneously, to observe the drying kinetics. The large
scale view is based on a simple optical rig which combines a
couple of lenses that permit to observe the entire drop, of
typical radius of the order of a millimeter, with a resolution
on size measurement of order of 50 ␮m 关29兴. The images
are acquired with a charge coupled device camera and framegrabbed on a computer, and are then mathematically processed in order to extract the instantaneous features such as
area A共t兲, perimeter P共t兲, connectivity, etc. The time resolution we used is sufficient—typically 1 Hz for a kinetics
that spans a few hours—to obtain a fine description of the
drying.
We also used standard bright field, phase contrast, and
polarized microscopy to observe locally the formation of the
solid deposit and the formation of a crust that both occur
during the course of drying.
III. RESULTS
A. Time series: shrinking, drying, and fractures
We display in Fig. 2 two series of snapshots of the temporal evolution of the colloidal droplet undergoing drying for
small and large colloids confined in the same cell. In both
cases, the experiment begins with a nearly perfectly circular
droplet which starts receding as a consequence of the controlled vapor removal. Soon after, a front inside the drop
becomes visible. With time, the size of the drops keeps diminishing while the inner front moves inward. The drops
does not keep a perfectly circular shape but instead, an instability develops which produces an invagination, except at
the highest initial volume fractions 共␾i ⲏ 0.55兲 where the
drop always remains circular 关33兴.
Once the inner front has merged centrally, the 2D drop
reaches its final state, whose geometry depends drastically on
the initial volume fraction and on the size of colloids; there is
then a latency time during which the area remains constant
关A共t兲 plateau in Fig. 3, top兴, and the ultimate stage of the
process consists of cracks and fractures propagation, and the
drop becomes eventually totally opaque. Such a massive
darkening is due to the raise of the refractive index difference between the particles 共PMMA, n ⬇ 1.49兲 and the interstitial fluid made first of decalin first 共n ⬇ 1.47兲 and then
replaced with air 共n ⬇ 1兲 upon drying.
The whole process is actually better seen in a video supplied as a supplementary material 关34兴. While out of the
scope of the present work, we also clearly see that the hierarchical skeleton of the fractures along with the ultimate dry-
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DRYING OF A COLLOIDAL SUSPENSION IN CONFINED…
0
171 min
303 min
396 min
489 min
552 min
29 min
119 min
219 min
309 min
380 min
2 mm
0
4.5 mm
FIG. 2. Series of pictures showing the confined drying of a drop of a colloidal solution of PMMA particles in decalin 共top: small colloids
with a particle radius R p = 230 nm at an initial volume fraction ␾i = 0.44; bottom: large colloids with R p = 3 ␮m, ␾i = 0.1兲.
90
50
80
46
70
42
60
38
50
34
40
0
1
P (mm)
A (mm 2 )
the crust is quite organized. Figures 4共a兲 and 4共b兲 show two
identical views but with a different contrast; the pictures display a directional structure of needlelike shapes of a few
hundreds of micrometers of width and several millimeters
long. The long direction of the needlelike objects is parallel
to the growth direction of the crust, which strongly suggests
that texture is induced by the growth process.
In between crossed polarizers, the objects appear weakly
birefringent, and the linear shape of the texture is also confirmed. Such a strongly anisotropic structure is very
reminiscent—if not identical—to the ones observed during
settling of a colloidal suspension 关36兴 which indeed produces
long columnar crystals 关37兴. By contrast, for the large
colloids optical microscopy reveals no structure.
During the drying, the drops leave behind a thin deposit.
We focus here on the top series of Fig. 2, e.g., image two 共at
5
3 x 10
2
t (s)
1
0.8
Af /A i
ing process strongly depend on the size of the colloids 共see
for instance the last picture of the two series in Fig. 2兲: for
the small ones, the cracks propagate radially while pockets
of dry matter nucleate inside what remains of the solution,
and further grow until the whole drop has dried up; for large
colloids instead, a crack follows a looped pattern while the
drying front nucleates at the edge of the drop and propagates
inwardly. Interestingly, for small colloids the fracture skeleton also follows this type of looped pattern but only for
concentrated enough solutions 共␾i ⲏ 0.55, not shown兲.
Automated measurements using image analysis permit to
quantify this behavior; we actually focus on the time evolution A共t兲. In all the cases we monitored, the area decreases
linearly with time until it reaches a plateau 共Fig. 3, top兲,
while the perimeter also decreases linearly for a while before
shooting up as a sign a the shape instability 关35兴. The first
and most straightforward measurement we obtain from the
image analysis is the ratio A f / Ai of areas at the end A f and at
the beginning Ai of the experiment. A f corresponds to the
plateau in A共t兲 at the late stage of drying, just before the drop
effectively dries up and fractures 共see for instance Fig. 2, Ai
at t = 0, and A f at t = 489 min兲. This ratio is a function of
initial volume fraction of the colloidal suspension and we
found that:
共i兲 for small colloids, there is linear relationship between
A f / Ai in the range ␾ = 0.2– 0.55 共with a slope 0.74⫾ 0.03兲
and then a deviation to linearity above ␾i ⬇ 0.55 共Fig. 3,
bottom兲;
共ii兲 for large colloids, the ratio depends on initial conditions, is always smaller than 0.65, and behaves in a less
systematic way 共data not shown兲.
0.6
0.4
0.2
B. Crust effect
One of the striking effects depicted here and common to
many of the drying patterns is the formation of a crust,
namely, a front which separates two regions and whose border is shifting toward the center of the drop with time, Fig. 2.
Local observation with optical microscopy reveals that
the crust has a structure which depends significantly on the
colloidal solution. Figure 4 shows a detailed set of micrographs collected at several locations 共shown in the inserts兲 in
and out the drying drop. For small colloids 关Figs. 4共a兲–4共c兲兴,
0
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
φi
FIG. 3. Top: measurements of area A and perimeter P against
time t obtained from the image analysis 共here for small colloids at
␾i = 0.4兲. Bottom: ratio of area at the end of the drying kinetics A f to
the initial area Ai against the initial volume fraction ␾i. The straight
continuous line has a slope 0.74. The vertical dashed line is positioned at ␾i = 0.55.
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JACQUES LENG
FIG. 4. Micrographs of the crust with different optical contrasts
关共a兲 phase contrast and 共b兲 crossed polarizers兴 in the case of small
colloids at relatively high volume fraction 共␾ = 0.44兲; optical micrographs of the deposit leftover outside the drying drop for small
colloids 共c兲 and large colloids 共d兲. In all cases, the insert shows
where the pictures were taken.
t = 171 min兲, for which there are several levels of contrast:
the most marked 共dark兲 ring corresponds to the vapor/liquid
meniscus. Just outside of it, there are marks lefts behind the
meniscus after its recession; this is an actual case of convective deposition 关38,39兴 of a liquid moving on a substrate in
wetting conditions. Bright field microscopy imaging reveals
two scenarios depending on the size of colloids. For small
colloids, one observes spectacular terraces 关Fig. 4共c兲兴,
whereas for larger beads, the system is totally disorganized
关Fig. 4共d兲兴 with a local amorphous structure and plenty of
voids. We will see later on how this impacts the drying
kinetics.
Local and global imaging where used to record the velocity at which the crust grows and we focus here only on the
case of small colloids. The growth behavior 共front position xc
measured from the edge of the drop兲 is initially linear with
time then speeds up although this behavior is sometimes not
so clear. We define the growth velocity of the crust vc as the
initial slope of xc共t兲 and show in Fig. 5共a兲 that by changing
the size of the drop R0 while keeping ␾i constant, the crust
velocity scales like vc ⬃ −关R0 ln共R0 / Rs兲兴−1, which is actually
proportional to the diffusion-limited evaporation rate of the
solvent that escape from the drop 共see Ref. 关29兴 and also Sec.
III兲. Then, by tuning the concentration in the drop while
keeping its size constant, we observe a strong dependency of
vc ⬃ ␾i / 共0.74− ␾i兲 with the content of the drop which, as we
shall see latter on, is well described in terms of conservation
laws and truncated dynamics.
IV. DISCUSSION
In Sec. II B, we recalled how the confined geometry casts
a control on the drying process essentially because the solvent vapor escapes the cell by a diffusion-limited kinetics
between the meniscus of the drop and the edge of the cell, in
a first approximation; the corresponding time scale directly
depends on the size of the substrate 关29兴 and reads ␶e
= Rs2 / 4D̃ where D̃ is a modified diffusion coefficient of the
FIG. 5. 共Color online兲 Growth velocity of the crust as a function
of 共a兲 a reduced evaporation flux expressed here with the size of the
drop radius R0 共mm兲 and substrate radius Rs 共see text; for ␾i
= 0.44, small colloids兲 and 共b兲 as a function of the initial volume
fraction ␾i at constant drop radius R0 constant 共insert: same data in
log scale兲. In 共b兲, the solid line is a fit based on conservation laws
关Eq. 共3兲 and corresponding text兴 vc = A␾i / 共0.74− ␾i兲 with A
= 共8 ⫾ 1兲10−3 ␮m s−1.
gas in air. When loading the solvent with a solute, here a
colloidal dispersion, a number of thermodynamic and kinetic
effects add up a significant complexity to the evaporation
process. The main thermodynamic effect, which we directly
elude, consists in principle of the modification of the chemical potential of the solution as a function of the composition.
According to Raoult’s law, we expect a decrease in the pressure of the vapor in equilibrium with the solution, which will
in turn slow down evaporation; however effect is negligible
in the case of large objects such as 200 nm colloids, while it
remains relevant for solutions of small molecules 关29兴.
Other effects are well delineated with the use of dimensionless numbers which compare several transport properties
in the fluid. The natural and typical time scale is that of
evaporation ␶e 共⬇2 ⫻ 106 s for decalin confined in a substrate of radius Rs = 4 cm兲 while the spatial scales are given
by Rs and h, the radius and the height of drying cell respectively. A typical velocity thus scales like v ⬃ Rs / ␶e
= O共10−2 ␮m s−1兲 关40兴.
The Reynolds number calculated on the height of the cell
with the properties of decalin is extremely small 共Re
⬍ 10−4兲 and any flow shall be laminar and well described by
the lubrication approximation.
The Péclet number 共Pe⬅ vmR / D p兲 which compares the
diffusion of colloids 共with a diffusion coefficient D p ⬇ 3.1
⫻ 10−13 m2 s−1 calculated using the Stoke-Einstein relation兲
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DRYING OF A COLLOIDAL SUSPENSION IN CONFINED…
FIG. 6. Schematic illustrations of the mechanisms at work at the
level of the meniscus. In 共a兲, the pinning of the contact line prevents
the meniscus to recede, which induces a compensation flow and
ultimately drives the colloids toward the meniscus. If the latter nevertheless recedes, it leaves behind a deposit of colloids 关共b兲 see also
Fig. 4共c兲兴 which sustains an atmosphere at the saturation concentration n쐓.
along the radius R of the drop to the convection induced by
the evaporation is large 共⬇102兲. Therefore, Brownian motion
will never be able to balance concentration gradients potentially produced by convection. Put another way, the typical
size onto which concentration gradients develop D p / vm is
very small 共⬇0.1 ␮m兲.
Due to evaporation, thermal gradients may develop and
induce a flow 关4,5,7兴; confinement however is likely to prevent it. The Marangoni number compares the surfaceinduced stress to the dissipation forces, and reads: Ma
⬅ 共−⳵␥ / ⳵T兲h⌬T / 共␩␣兲 where ␣ is the thermal diffusivity
共⬇10−5 m2 s−1兲. Therefore, evaporation for confined decalin
producing a typical temperature shift of ⌬T ⬇ 0.01 K leads
to Ma⬇ 10−3. No significant recirculation flow is expected
from thermal-induced gradients.
This contrasts with capillary flows induced by surface deformation. Indeed, as the capillary number Ca⬅ ␩vm / ␥
⬇ 10−9 is very small in our case, the surface tension is likely
to dominate any surface deformation, often linked to line
pinning. Whenever this occurs, a capillary flow will compensate the mass imbalance as compared to a freely moving
meniscus. This is schematically depicted in Fig. 6共a兲.
This survey gives a flavor of the process: vapor removal is
controlled by the confinement, which provokes the displacement of the wetting meniscus. In the frame of the moving
meniscus, the colloids are getting accumulated close to the
meniscus which will explain of the occurrence of the crust.
Such an accumulation is likely to be enhanced by capillary
flows but not thermal recirculations. We now examine this
scenario in details.
A. Drying at constant rate
We actually observe in all the experiments that the time
evolution of the area is constant: Ȧ = const. 共Fig. 3兲, seemingly in contradiction with the evaporation Eq. 共1兲; the latter
rather predicts a logarithmic correction coming from the cylindrical geometry but holds only for pure liquids, not dispersions.
We suggest that this constant kinetics is due to the convectively deposited material left behind the meniscus. Indeed, as suggested in Fig. 6共b兲, when the meniscus recedes
and leaves a colloidal film behind, the atmosphere in between the upper and lower films is likely to remain saturated
with vapor; an alternative way to put it is to assume that the
evaporation occurs only at the rim of the film, around the
singularity at R共t = 0兲 in Fig. 6共b兲. It is also clear from an
experimental point of view that this region becomes effectively dry only at the final stage of the kinetics, see for instance the last image in Fig. 2, at t = 552 min, where the film
left behind becomes dark.
The evaporation condition is thus set by the initial size of
the drop A0 and by drainage across the film formed via
capillary/convective deposition. Therefore, we may assume
there is a constant flux of solvent escaping from the initial
trace of the drop at a radius R共t = 0兲 = R0 that reads 关29兴:
J0 = −
␳LD̃
,
R0 ln共R0/Rs兲
共2兲
in mass per unit of time and area, where ␳L is the mass
density of the liquid decalin. Such a constant evaporation
flux is directly responsible for a constant mass loss, or
equivalently in our 2D geometry a constant surface loss, as
indeed observed experimentally.
B. Truncated dynamics and capillary flow
The combination of a constant mass loss and large Péclet
number has a direct consequence on the accumulation of the
colloids around the meniscus. Indeed, in the frame of the
meniscus, there is a flow of liquid that brings more and more
colloids which therefore tend to accumulate 共even if a small
quantity is left behind by convective deposition兲. The concentration profile in the fluid phase is expected to resemble
that of sedimentation, close to an exponential with a typical
size D p / vm; as this “sedimentation length” is small 共D p / vm
ⱗ 0.1 ␮m Ⰶ h兲, it is hardly noticeable experimentally and
the sample remains essentially homogeneous. The magnitude
of the concentration gradient increases linearly with time at
the level of the meniscus, at least initially 关41兴, and will in
any case reach ultimately a concentrated regime. This is the
occurrence of the crust with a solid/liquid border, a shock
front, which has been observed either in 3D 关20,21兴 or directional drying 关42,43兴, and recently referred to a truncated
dynamics 关8,12,13兴.
Zheng 关13兴 derived the dynamics of such a front based on
conservation laws in an axial flow. If we develop his result
around t = 0 in the frame of the moving meniscus at a velocity vm = −J0 / ␳L derived from the fixed evaporation rate 关Eq.
共2兲兴, and a homogeneous concentration field at ␾ = ␾i, the
growth rate of the crust vc follows:
vc = vm
␾i
,
␾max − ␾i
共3兲
where ␾max is the concentration at truncation.
While we have good agreement for the scaling of vc
⬀ vm at a given volume fraction 关Fig. 5共a兲兴, which indeed
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Pe < 1
Pe > 1
FIG. 7. A schematic view on the impact of the local Péclet
number on the growth process. 共Left, Pe⬍ 1兲 Diffusion dominates
and the spheres can explore many conformations before finding a
registered crystalline position; the structure will be organized.
共Right, Pe⬎ 1兲 Convection dominates and does leave any chance to
the colloids to reach a registered position; the structure is likely to
be disordered.
supports a direct coupling between the solvent removal rate
and the crust growth, we also recover a satisfactory scaling—
see Fig. 5共b兲—assuming 共i兲 vm is fixed and 共ii兲 ␾max is constant. The former point is reasonable as the crust velocity is
measured at its early stage of appearance, when the size of
the drop has not changed too much; it is also consistent with
the observation of constant solvent removal rate, Eq. 共2兲
With these assumptions, we obtain that the fit procedure
gives vm ⬇ 共6 ⫾ 1兲 ⫻ 10−9 m s−1 in good agreement with the
direct calculation vm = −J0 / ␳L which yields vm ⬇ 8
⫻ 10−9 m s−1. Here, we kept ␾max constant and fixed at the
maximum compacity value 共i.e., that of a compact crystal
␾max = 0.74兲, consistently with the observation of the crust
structure that we will give now.
C. Structure of the crust
The process of the crust formation leads to a deposit
which is organized or disordered depending on the conditions of volume fraction and particle size. The crust seen in
Figs. 4共a兲 and 4共b兲 obtained at moderate volume fraction of
small colloids resembles very much the columnar structure
obtained during the settling of the same colloids, in which
case the iridescent aspect proves the crystalline nature.
Here, on top of the apparent birefringence 关Fig. 4共c兲兴, the
measurement of the volume fraction is another type of proof:
if we disregard the colloids lost on the substrate by convective deposition, we can assume that the volume of colloids is
conserved, thus Ai␾i = A f ␾ f . It results that the area measurement provides a simple way to estimate the concentration at
the end of the drying process 共Fig. 3兲. For most cases of
small particles, we observe that the volume fraction at the
end of drying is ␾ f ⬇ 0.74, i.e., that of a close-packed systems. This is however untrue 共i兲 for systems of small particles when starting at high concentration, namely, ␾i
ⲏ 0.55 where the final volume fraction is smaller than 0.74
and 共ii兲 for systems of large particles.
This behavior is usually explained with the help of the
Péclet defined locally on the size of the particle Pe
= vR p / D p = 6␲␩R2pv / kT. If using the value of the crust velocity measured in Fig. 5共a兲 and the viscosity of pure decalin,
we find that Pe⬇ 0.1Ⰶ 1 for small particles, but Peⲏ 1 for
large particles. The Fig. 7 illustrates schematically the possible interpretation: for a small Péclet number, the diffusion
dominates close to the crust and the particles will explore
several configurations before smoothly finding a registered
position that is on a crystalline site; it is obviously guided by
the flow field in the interstice of the lattice. Oppositely, when
the Péclet number is large, the particles get trapped and
locked in any position of a more open, glassylike structure.
The transition between the two limits is triggered by a shift
in particle size and also in concentration as the viscosity
increases strongly when the concentration raises.
We observe experimentally the two behaviors either by
increasing significantly the size of the colloids or by increasing the viscosity of the solution of small colloids. Indeed, for
␾i ⲏ 0.55, the system is prepared in a metastable liquid state,
which shall crystallize but does not for kinetic reasons; it
thus reaches quickly a glassy state upon evaporation, which
is viscous and does not leave the small colloids any chance
to reorganize locally to find a registered position. It eventually leads to a final deposit with a low compacity 共␾ f
⬍ 0.74兲.
D. Buckling of a 2D shell
Once the deposit starts to grow, it has a tremendous effect
on the rest of the drying kinetics; it will in some cases result
in the invagination process that we observe in Fig. 2. Our
observations actually closely follow 3D experiments concerning the buckling of shells obtained by evaporation of
drops with colloids 关20–22,44兴. The onset of the buckling
instability is due to the mechanical resistance that opposes
the crust upon the constraint of evaporation that forces the
volume to shrink: the crust can either flow, get compressed
or buckle depending on its mechanical and geometrical features. The crust also has a significant impact on evaporation,
either via the capillary pressure that may diminish the vapor
pressure, especially for very small colloids, or because of the
viscous dissipation in the porous medium that makes up the
shell 关20,42,43兴.
It is interesting to see that we recover the exact sequence
of reference 关20兴 with only one obvious difference, beside
our 2D geometry: several modes of deformation occur before
one wins over the others; the latter will develop largely and
produces an invagination. It is due to the fact that once deformed, a concave meniscus is likely to become saturated
with vapor and will then be less prone to evaporation. The
local driving force for the crust formation hence fades away
and the crust becomes inhomogeneous. When looking
closely, it is even possible to observe that the crust redissolves 共or melts away兲 at the level of the invagination, as for
instance in Fig. 2 at t = 396 min.
Beside, there is also an interaction of the crust with the
substrate which is present at 2D and not at 3D. Indeed, in
case of any interaction of the colloids with the substrate, e.g.,
van der Waals attraction, an additional resistance is created
and prevents the crust to recede further. This hypothesis has
been checked experimentally recently 关45兴 by tuning the nature of the substrate: it turns out that the onset of the instability indeed depends specifically on the substrate and is delayed in case of a lubricating substrate, which accredits the
role surface anchoring to induce an invagination instability.
The exact way the colloid/substrate interaction plays a role
has not been detailed but should be workable in principle due
021405-6
PHYSICAL REVIEW E 82, 021405 共2010兲
DRYING OF A COLLOIDAL SUSPENSION IN CONFINED…
to the neat control of geometry and observation.
V. CONCLUSION
wire
The present work focuses on a qualitative picture of the
drying of a colloidal solution in a confined geometry, with
some variations as to the degree of confinement. The observations span some of the typical events that occur during
drying that are, most of the time, observed in 3D and sometimes in directional drying. The quantitative scenario depicted here seems quite clear, thanks to the facilitated 2D
observation: due to evaporation, colloids get accumulated at
the edge of the drop where they will eventually prevent an
homogeneous recession of the meniscus; it produces a shape
instability which is related, in principle, to the mechanical
stiffness of the crust and flow properties across such a porous
crust, and possibly to the substrate/colloid interaction. The
local dynamics characterized by the local Péclet number can
then select the structure of the crust, either crystalline or
amorphous, which in turn also selects the structure of the
final dry state.
The possible strength of the simple drying strategy presented here lies in the ready-to-use geometry and the good
control it yields for quantitative studies. The next steps of
investigation will consists on the one hand in calculating
numerically the concentration field inside the drop 共equation
are writable but not tractable analytically 关41兴兲, and on the
other hand in measuring these concentration fields inside the
drop, against space and time, as for instance with Raman
spectroscopy 关46兴 or fluorescence techniques to extract velocity and mobility fields 共with tracer velocimetry and microrheology 关28兴兲 along with the concentration fields 关23,24兴.
It could give, in principle, a facile route to investigate the
more complex case of bulk, 3D drying.
glass slides
colloidal solution
1 mm
a
b
c
d
e
FIG. 8. A simple experiment to visualize how the crust builds up
at the level of the meniscus: a drop of a colloidal solution is
squeezed in between two microscope glass slides and confined by
two wires 共copper wire of 50 ␮m diameter兲 which also serve as
spacers. Evaporation is directional 共outward the cell兲, the meniscus
is pinned, and optical micrographs clearly show the accumulation of
a dense zone at the level of the meniscus. Contour detection and
image reconstruction show that the “crust” has reached a steady
shape with a boundary perpendicular to the wires—its propagation
direction—after a of length scale roughly equal to the spacing between the wires 共small colloids, ␾ = 0.44, times of snapshots: 共a兲 0,
共b兲 72 min, 共c兲 125 min, 共d兲 325 min, 共e兲 374 min.兲
We anticipated that capillary effects must be dominant at
a very small Ca and we exemplify it now with a complementary experiment showing that the buildup of the crust does
proceed through a strong role of the pinned interface. This is
just another drying experiment in confined geometry where a
drop of the colloidal solution is even further confined by
using lateral wires, such as depicted in Fig. 8. The images
and their analysis with contour detection permit to evidence
that in such a situation, the meniscus that is indeed pinned at
the level of the wire induces the growth of the deposit
through a complex flow pattern, essentially directed toward
the corners. We actually do not monitor the flow pattern but
deduce it from the contour detection of the deposit growth
共Fig. 8, bottom兲. Again, this is an illustration of the capillary
nature of the induced growth, very similar to the capillary
flow of a sessile drop but somehow seen from the side 共and
of course with a different symmetry兲. Once the crust front
has grown on a length scale comparable to the width between the spacers, the front becomes flat and grows further
without any memory of the initially two-dimensional flow
pattern. Such an experiment illustrates well how the flow
may develop due to the pinning of the contact line 关see also
the schematic illustration of Fig. 6共a兲兴 and must be governed
by capillary effects. The latter are by nature slaved to the
removal rate of solvent which may explain the observed scaling vc ⬃ J0, the evaporation rate.
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We thank F. Clément for permanent enthusiasm, M. E.
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APPENDIX: ADDITIONAL EXPERIMENT ON
CONFINED DRYING
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